Death of family pet

How did you explain death to your child? We have to put down our 14 yr old lab today, and my 4 yr old is confused. I dont want to use euphamisms like pitting to sleep, i dont want my son afraid of going to bed.

Idk if your religious, but I told my daughter who is 4 that our dog was really sick and the only way for him to feel better was to go to heaven... And that he was there with grandpa ( he passed away 2 yrs ago) and I explained that he had died also... She dosnt understand it entirely but it worked for now untill she is older and can understand these types of things better

my daughter(4) asks about who was in whose tummy (because i am pregnant now) and she asked me whose tummy i was in (my mother passed away a year before she was born) so i had told her she went to heaven because God wanted her up there with him... & that she is having a lot of fun- & one day she will be able to meet her grandma! ..she understood & we talked about it for a while (she goes to church twice a week) but my son who is 2 just doesn't grasp it yet... good luck. oh my daughter was not sad at all during our talk or scared...

Our Lab passed away in Sept 2011 and I tried my best to explain to my son that our doggie was dead. He understands that he's gone and never coming back.
We still talk about him from time to time and express the fact that we miss him so much.
Plus, his goldfish died, and one of his hamsters died recently. He took the news pretty well.

<blockquote><b>Quoting Amberchik78:</b>" How did you explain death to your child? We have to put down our 14 yr old lab today, and my 4 yr old ... [snip!] ... and my 4 yr old is confused. I dont want to use euphamisms like pitting to sleep, i dont want my son afraid of going to bed."</blockquote>